ISYS100 wasabi+challenge

When we came together as a group, having come from a variety of different backgrounds it was hard to pinpoint an idea for blog. However, we all found that we had one thing in common; a love of food. Sharing both food that we had made, and food that we had enjoyed at restaurants was something that we thought would be a good idea, and would provide readers with home cooking ideas and the opportunity to experience a restaurant that they had never been to before.
Sticking to the theme of food, the backdrop for our blog depicts essentials of a dining experience. Whilst a very simple design, we felt the brightly coloured cutlery added to the aesthetics of the food pictures provided within the blog, whilst also providing a sense of ‘hominess’ to the readers.

Kaeng Keaw Waan Kai (Green Curry with Chiecken) (Bowen's recipe)

ingredients
    2 tablespoons       vegetable oil
    2 tablespoons       green curry paste
    1/4 teaspoons       ground roasted cumin seeds
    1/4 teaspoons       ground roasted coriander seeds
    250 grams.         coconut milk
    80 grams          chicken breast (bite-size sliced)
    2 pieces          Thai eggplant
    10 pieces.         small eggplant
    1 piece           big red chili
    1 leaf.           kaffir lime leaf (tear into small pieces)
    10 leaves.         sweet basil leaves

Seasoning
    1/2 tablespoons       palm sugar
    1/2 tablespoons       fish sauce

Garnish
    red chili (diagonally sliced)

Method:
1.   In a saucepan on a medium heat: add vegetable oil. add green curry paste, ground roasted coriander seeds and cumin seeds, stir-fry until an aroma develops.
2   add a scoop of coconut milk. allow it to immer until the oil is extracted from the coconut milk, follow by 2nd and 3rd scoop of coconut milk. simmer for a few minutes
3   add the chicken and the rest of the coconut milk. bring to the boil and add all eggplants. cook until they are cooked through.
4   add seasoning: palm sugar, fish sauce
5   add kaffir lime leaves, chilies and basil leaves, gently stir
6   garnish sliced chilies

Home made pizza!

For something different, I thought I would try creating my first ever pizza from scratch, making the dough completely by hand.

The dough was so simple, using only 4 ingredients; '00' grade flour, yeast, salt and warm water.

After making the dough came the hardest part; rolling it out. As you can see by the shape of this pizza, I wasnt exactly very skilled at it.

I tried rolling up some of the edges in an attempt to make a crust, however as I found out after it had cooked it is better to leave them flat. 

Now comes the best part; choosing the toppings! Here I have used chicken, cherry tomatoes, spinach and red onion.

The cooking time for this particular dough recipe was only 5 minutes, enough time for everything to crisp up.

The parts where I did not fold up the edges actually puffed up, and turned out better than the parts where I had attempted to make a crust. 

This pizza was actually perfect. The temptation to buy take-away pizza is there due to its convenience, however by making your own you know exactly what goes into it, and you get the satisfaction of knowing you made something delicious. 

I didnt expect it to taste this good, so I will definitely be making this again, hopefully I can get the shape right next time!

The Vogue Café

I always walk past this café when I go to Macquarie Centre since Bowen normally park near the car park close to Country Road that located on the 2^nd floor of Macquarie Centre.

I love this café so much as the food is amazing, the service is fast and friendly, the drinks are delicious and so creative, and the environment is refreshing.

Today Bowen and I had the breakfast there. We ordered “TVC mix up”. It is awesome creamy scrambled eggs tossed with feta & basil served on toasted soy/linseed sourdough.

For the drinks, we ordered special choc rim smoothies with Nutella and magic blueberry milkshakes. The drinks were so lovely and tasty. We also tried cappuccino there and that was quite nice as well.

19/05/2015

Yubai

Sichuan twice-cooked pork

Materials：
Pork:400g with streaky skin
Shallots：2
Green pepper：1
Red pepper：1
Ginger：5 pieces
Bean paste：one and half spoon
Cooking wine： 1 spoon
Soy sauce：1 spoon

China Sichuan twice-cooked pork is a kind of cooking traditional dishes of pork, western Sichuan region also known as boil the pot of meat. Every household can be produced in Sichuan. Twice-cooked pork is characterized by a unique taste, bright red color, fat but not greasy. The so-called skillet, cook the meaning of that again. As a traditional Sichuan twice-cooked pork, place in Sichuan in is very important, Sichuan twice-cooked pork Grading often used as the preferred dishes. Sichuan twice-cooked pork has long been considered the first, the incarnation of Sichuan, the mention of Sichuan twice-cooked pork necessarily think

1.Cleaning pork

2.Pot into the water, put pepper, ginger, onions and boil, add pork six mature, about 5 minutes;

3.Remove and dry to warm and cut into thin slices;

4.Pepper cut into diamond-shaped pieces, garlic and cut into sections

5.Boil hot oil into a small fire under the pork stir fry oil

6.Add soy sauce, bean paste

7.put red pepper and garlic and stir fry

8.put a small pan and stir well MSG

The octopus fry

The octopus fry

This is a dish that was made with family although the dish looks complicated it is quite easy to complete. The dish involves frying onions and curry leaves, then add the spices that are a family secret, crush tomatoes, fresh lemon juice and coconut milk. Once these ingredients are added in the pot you let the ingredients simmer for a few minutes. Once this is left to simmer you add the octopus to the dish and let that simmer for a further 1 hour. 

This is a lovely dish that is great in cold weather.

Connor Lambert

Cooking coke chicken wings

1.Cleaning the chicken wings and cutting the wounds on the wings meanwhile putting the salt and ginger's powder to rouge these wings about 10 minutes.

2.Pour oil into pot and put wings into pot after the oil heat.Stiring constantly until moisture dries and the wings' skin become gold

3.Last but most important! pour coke which just exactly over chicken wings. After the fire to boil, switch to small fire until moisture dries and then fire received water.

Tips:
Coke chicken wings is not a difficult meal but is very delicious
Rouging the chicken wings by ginger could keep fresh for chicken
Don't pour too much coke!!! It will be too sweat and cook long time. If you think it is not sweat enough, you can choose put some suger instead of coke
Don't leave when you are cooking!!!!!!

Chocolate Marshmallow Cookies

As unhealthy as the title sounds, these cookies are anything but. The primary ingredients of these cookies are pumpkin and cannellini beans!

The lumps within the batter are mini marshmallows, and with the addition of cocoa, there is no additional taste of pumpkin or beans within the finished product.

The pumpkin and beans are once again in the mixture as a means of adding a large amount of volume, while minimising the caloric density of the batch of cookies. 

Cookies like these are incredibly easy and quick to make, using very few ingredients and very little cooking time. The final product is a very soft, chocolatey cookie, and with the gooey-ness of the marshmallow, it made for an extremely delicious snack. 

Healthy

As health is becoming a greater importance for people the range of health alternatives is growing. A great way, I have found to include healthy alternatives in my breakfast options is by using health shake ingredients and yogurt to create a blended berry and yogurt bowl. 

This health alternative for breakfast uses fresh berries and yogurt, which is an exciting alternative to normal cereal. The HSA vanilla forest fruits mix combined with fresh berries and yogurts is great way to start the day. The shake mix also allows you to drink it as a shake if you are in a rush in the mornings. 

This easy breakfast option is made by putting the packet ingredients in a blender combined with; fresh berries, yogurt, chia seeds, and a bit of mix if you are making the smoothie. This is a fast an easy breakfast option that is a great way to start the day.

TIM HO WAN Chatswood

TIM HO WAN AUSTRALIA

Michelin-starred dim sum from Hong Kong has finally hit the stores of Australia! Today Bowen and I went to Chatswood and tried this restaurant called Tim Ho Wan. The menu of this restaurant is quite simply with only one page of the dim sum’s picture and the description of them.

We ordered Prawn Dumpling, Pork Dumpling with Shrimp, Braised Chicken Feet with Abalone Sauce, Vermicelli Roll with BBQ Pork, Glutinous Rice in Lotus Leaf, Rice with Beef & Fried Egg and Tonic Medlar & Osmanthus Cake.

We finished all the dishes except the Rice with Beef & Fried Egg because we were so full. My favorite one is Tonic Medlar & Osmanthus Cake. The cake tastes like jelly and the sweetness is just. This is a really recommend dessert after the meal. It can bring away the oiliness. Bowen’s favorite is Vermicelli Roll with BBQ Pork because the mouthfeel of the Vermicelli Roll is so good!

This was a really nice food experience and I think I will revisit Tim Ho Wan again very soon.

Yubai Zhou

6/5/2015

Korean BBQ

Actually, Korean BBQ has became a popular meal method in the world but not only in Korea. And the Korean BBQ refers to the Korean method of roasting beef, pork, chicken, or other types of meat. And the restaurant wouldn’t help you cook the dishes. You have to do all yourself. Actually it is an interesting experience to cook a rich dinner for your friends in restaurant. And Bulgogi is my favorite meat in Korean BBQ. Before cooking, the meat would be marinated with a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, garlic, and pepper. On the other hand, a good special BBQ chill sauce is also important for Korean BBQ.